A Whole New Timeline
by ExceedinglyTrans
Summary: [TFBW Spoilers] When the New Kid went back in time, she changed not just her own life, but many others, too. Relationships have changed, people are alive that weren't before, and it's all a lot for her to deal with. Join her as she reflects on her timeline's changes, and as she, eventually, lives her life, a different person than she once was. Oh, also, she and Wendy date.
1. Scrambled Memories

The summary should make it obvious, but spoilers abound in this fic. If you haven't finished the main story of The Fractured But Whole, and you care about it being spoiled, put this fic away until you finish the game. There's also spoilers for The Stick of Truth, but you've had three years, so, like... com'on.

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So much had happened so quickly that only now, the day after it all ended, was she able to think. The New Kid, as most of her schoolmates still called her (if they weren't calling her 'Buttlord' or 'Douchebag'), was only just now realizing that she remembered the past few years of her life in two very different ways. This probably shouldn't have been as surprising as it was. Afterall, she remembered being forced to murder her own father, remembered her mother torn up and bleeding on the ground, and yet just last night she had seen the both of them alive and well. Not only that, but they were happy and flirting with each other, in a way she hadn't seen for a while - at least in one version of her memories.

Strangely, these memories, of her parent's horrific fates, of their constant fighting beforehand, and of many other things besides, seemed to be… hazy. As though they were slowly fading away, being replaced by new memories, of a new timeline.

It all went back to that fateful night, that she now remembered from two very different perspectives, in which she had traveled to the past, and her parents had revealed the secrets about themselves and, in turn, herself, that they had been keeping from her.

The version of herself that had done that - gone into the past to irrevocably change the future - was, somehow, no longer the her that currently existed. That version of herself would forever live in her memories of that fateful night, and yet that is all it would be, a memory.

The more she thought about it, the more she was surprised at how different her memories were, of how much had changed since that time. The differences started small, but they grew, bigger and bigger, the closer she got to the present. She realized, with a bit of apprehension, that she needed to sort her own head out before she tried to go interact with the rest of the world. She could already sense that, in some cases, her relationships between others, especially some of her classmates, was different, and the idea of trying to interact with them without being sure of where they stood was unnerving, to say the least.

She would have to take a bit and reflect. She would have to figure out what memories applied to her world now, and which didn't, or she was sure she'd regret it. But school started soon. Her parents wouldn't allow her to skip it. Unless, that is, she could come up with a clever plan, a way to trick her parents into allowing her to stay…

And thus, about five minutes later, the New Kid found herself tucked back into bed by her mother, the sound of her father angrily yelling about a vomit-stained shirt audible even with her room door closed.

What had happened since the night she changed her own history? She had to figure it out, get her scrambled mind sorted, and to do so, she went back to the beginning.

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The weeks immediately after Ana Olivas, or 'the New Kid' as she was not yet known, was told the truth by her parents were largely the same in both versions of her memory. Sure, her parents had both checked up on her several times, particularly her mother, to see how she was feeling after those revelations, but besides that, the days mostly consisted of packing up to move, as they had before.

'The talk' her parents had with her the day before they were scheduled to move was also familiar, if more frank. It still upset her to think about, yet she couldn't help recalling it vividly.

"Hey, sweetie. Sorry to make you stop your game, but Daddy and I need to talk to you," Mom had said, setting Ana's 3DS on the table. At least her mom let her pause the game, instead of grabbing it out of her hands immediately, like her dad usually did. The three of them sat around the dinner table, which had an open cardboard box in the middle, partially filled with various odds and ends that hadn't already been stuffed into other boxes.

"So, tomorrow's the big move," Dad started, looking more nervous than he usually did when talking to her. "I know we haven't been here very long, but, well - your Facebook numbers really ballooned quickly this time, And we've had five late night intruders in three weeks. I know you can't help it, kid, but sheesh."

Mom, who had been tapping her fingers against her own arm restlessly, grabbed one of Ana's hands, squeezing it tightly. "Now, honey, you know we love you. And we've always supported you about your gender. We know you're a little girl, even if we thought otherwise when you were born."

The smile dad wore as he continued to talk was strained, and showed way too many teeth. "Right, right! So, uh, this isn't about that. We're not trying to, uh, invalidate, um, your gender identity."

"But…" Mom said, unable to look Ana in the eyes, opting to stare at her husband instead.

"But… they found us really quickly this time. Or, almost did… We've seen government agents in the town, it's just a matter of time. We don't want you to have to keep changing schools so often, so… we need to change your identity a little more… drastically, this time." At this point, Dad also couldn't bring himself to look Ana in the eyes - or perhaps he had just found a particularly interesting pattern in the woodwork of the table. "We're gonna need you to... pretend to be a boy."

"It won't be forever, sweetie!" Mom immediately interjected, squeezing Ana's hand even tighter. "We're going to up your pill dosage, too, and hopefully that and the new identity will let us start a more stable life." She tried to look Ana in the eyes again, but seemed unable to handle the girl's intense stare. "...We can eventually have you 'transition' again, socially, once we're sure the government can't find us! Besides, the future you looked like a girl, so... that seems encouraging, right? Hopefully it helps you feel a little better?"

Dad laughed. It was forced, hollow. "Yeah, so, don't worry, son!" He emphasized the last word with a hearty pat on Ana's back.

"Chris, don't-" Mom started.

Pulling his hand away like he'd touched a hot stove, Dad frowned. "We might as well try to get her, uh, _him_ used to it!"

"She needs time-"

"We're moving _tomorrow_! He doesn't _have_ time!" Looking back at Ana, he searched her still blank face for a reaction. She wasn't the most expressive child; her thoughts were a whirlwind of emotion, mostly negative at the moment, but her face didn't indicate it. "It's just like, uh, playing pretend!" Dad offered, his awkward smile returned. "You're playing a character, but, like, for a long time, and at school and stuff, too!" He paused, still searching her face. "You… you'll be alright, right, champ?"

She wouldn't be. Or, at least, that's what she wanted to tell him. This was a horrible idea. Stomaching being constantly misgendered for what, weeks, months, years, even? The notion inspired a fear and revulsion so great that it threatened to eat her away inside and leave her a hollow husk of a person. She couldn't do this, _wouldn't_ do this. They couldn't make her. She would fight it tooth and nail, and she didn't care if it made the government find them quicker. Or, at least, that's what she told herself.

"Yeah, sh - he'll be fine," Dad said, giving another forced smile to Mom, who just looked worried.

She picked the 3DS back up and handed it to Ana. There was a definite note of melancholy to her voice. "Go on, sweetie, go play your game. Your father and I have more packing to do."

The next day, they moved. On the way to Colorado, they bought Ana boy clothes and made her get her hair cut. Mom stopped Dad from having it cut _too_ terribly short, but Ana's dark red hair was still cut much more boyish than before.

It wasn't until the day after they left that they finally arrived in South Park. Ana had only _just_ forced herself to put on some of the boy clothes she'd been given when her parents burst into her room and encouraged her to go outside to make friends.

From there, her memories were largely the same for a while. She met a bunch of her classmates, like Butters, Clyde, and Cartman, and they immediately roped her into a big fantasy game they were all playing. She didn't mind, actually - it helped keep her from getting lost in her own bitter, depressed thoughts. Except for when they called her a boy. Which was, fortunately, more infrequent than she anticipated - the other kids preferred much less kind terms like 'douchebag.' But she's rather be 'douchebag' than 'he.'

Things were pretty much the same in both sets of memories for the next two days, including all the bizarre things she could still hardly believe were real, like being abducted by aliens and fighting underpants gnomes. Life in South Park quickly proved to be much odder than anywhere else Ana had lived.

If only her night with the underpants gnomes had gone differently… she dearly wished the memory of her parents fucking, and of her being right beneath them while they did, was one of the things that was fading from her mind.

It wasn't until Ana was tasked by the boys to form an alliance with the girls that things changed. A lot.

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At first, things went the same way. Ana went as an 'emissary' to the girls, and they explained they wanted her help in uncovering a 'two faced bitch.' It quickly became obvious that the term could be applied to all of them, much to Ana's distaste. Were these girls always so mean to each other? Had she just met them at a particular low point? Maybe it wasn't so bad that she was hanging out with the boys instead of the girls, if the girls in this town treated each other this way.

But she went along with it, like she'd gone along with everything else so far. What else was she supposed to do? The boys wanted this alliance, and they'd tasked her with getting it. If she didn't, the boys would probably kick her out of the game like they had Clyde, and she wasn't the sort to force her way back in as a villain like he had. She'd be stuck with no one to play with, and thus her own thoughts, and she sure as hell didn't want _that_ right now. Not with the awful memory of her parent's naked bodies floating around in there.

And so she pretended to be the 'boyfriend' of a girl named Bebe, and then fought the boyfriend of another girl, named Monica. It turned out Monica wasn't the culprit, though, so the next plan involved infiltrating an abortion clinic, and Ana 'pretending' to be a girl.

For a moment, Ana's frustrations with her life and with these girls' pettiness melted away, replaced by near overwhelming excitement and joy. It'd only been a few days that she'd been presenting as a boy, but it'd been hell on her psyche. She was so excited about this opportunity that she actually felt her mouth form a smile as she tried on different outfits. The other girls cheered her on when they thought her outfits were cute, and it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

But then she went to the abortion clinic, and outside of it she watched as the girls she was trying to help acted like the two-faced bitch they were trying to find toward another girl - Jesse Rodriguez, the only other latina girl Ana had seen in the town so far. It filled Ana with rage to see them treat this nice girl like that, especially when she got a message from Jesse a bit later on Facebook. The message let Ana know that she was, apparently, the only one that _didn't_ treat Jesse like a jerk behind her back.

And so Ana formed a plan. She was going to get the info the girls wanted, but she _wasn't_ going to give it to them. She'd force them to play nice if they wanted it, alliance with the boys be damned.

After getting through a pseudo-abortion by breaking the abortion equipment with her exceptional ass control, Ana found the documents the girls wanted and snapped a picture with her phone. Then she was forced to give an 'abortion' to a grown man named Randy. Then she had to fight nazi zombie fetuses. Then, finally, she brought the info back to the girls, knowing they couldn't read it, since it was in French. Predictably, they sent her to translate it. She ended up having to trek through Canada to do it, but finally, after entirely too many diversions and disturbing adventures, Ana had a translation.

"Alright, New Kid, you got it?" Wendy, the apparent leader, asked. She pointed toward the paper Ana held, a piece of paper that a Canadian man had written the translation on. Ana stared at her, silent, unmoving. After a moment, Wendy spoke again, raising an eyebrow. "Right, so, you gonna hand it over?"

Ana gripped the paper tighter. It took some effort, but she shook her head back and forth, in a 'no.'

"What!?" yelled Bebe, Ana's former fake girlfriend. "Why the hell not!?"

Trying, for a moment, to form words, Ana sighed when none came. She pulled out her phone, scrunching the translation underneath her arm. After typing out a message, she handed the phone to a very confused Wendy.

"I… what? Seriously?" Wendy said after reading, eyes wide.

"What's it say?" a girl with red hair called out.

Looking far less upset than Ana had expected, Wendy read the message aloud. "You're all being jerks to each other. I hate it. I'm not giving you this paper unless you apologize to each other for being mean behind everyone's back. Also apologize to Jesse."

All the girls, besides Wendy, seemed to explode once she finished. They were all yelling, mostly at Ana, outraged that she would dare do this to them. Some said they had nothing to apologize for, others said they should just beat the New Kid up and take it from 'him.' Wendy, on the other hand, set Ana's phone down, and started typing on another phone, presumably her own.

After about a minute, Wendy set her phone down, then banged her gavel until the other girls quieted down. "Girls, could you all please look at Jesse Rodriguez's wall?" Confused, the other girls all pulled out their own phones. Wendy handed Ana's phone back to her and said, "You should look, too."

It only took a moment for Ana to get to Jesse's page. On it was a post from a few seconds ago by Wendy that said 'Jesse, I'm sorry for being a two-faced bitch. You deserve better.'

"Wendy, you… why!?" Bebe said, horrified.

"The New Kid's right, girls," Wendy said, stony-faced. "Whoever started these rumors isn't the only two-faced bitch around here - we've _all_ been nasty to each other." She stepped down from her podium, to stand in the center part of the room. "So hey, everyone, I'm sorry."

There was silence. Then, slowly, the red-haired girl stood, and walked into the center of the room too. "I'm… I'm sorry, too! I've been terrible!"

"Me too!" said another, who then came to stand near Wendy.

"And me!" cried someone else.

One by one they each did the same, even Bebe. They all stood in the center of the room, and once everyone had apologized, they all hugged each other, pulling Ana into it, too. There was laughing and crying in equal measure. Almost every girl said "I love you all" at least once, and one or two proclaimed this was 'the start of a new me.'

Gradually, the hugging, crying circle pulled apart, though they all still stood in the center of the room, sniffling and smiling at each other.

Wiping a tear from her eye, one of them said, "Hey, girls?"

"Yes, Heidi?" said Wendy.

"It was me. I started the rumors."

No one said anything at first, they all just stared. Wendy was the first one to speak.

"Fuck you, Heidi, you two-faced bitch."


	2. The Sleepover

Hey, does anyone remember how Wendy left a message inviting the player to a sleepover after you finished helping the girls in Stick of Truth? Let's just say I got some mileage out of that.

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Though her mission was done, Ana hung out in the girl's 'secret base' a while longer. Red proclaimed Ana an 'honorary girl', and gave her access to a shop, where Ana immediately bought a really cute 'fairy princess' outfit. The other girls talked to her whenever she drew close, none of them acting weird about her whole 'not talking' thing. Not only that, but they all seemed to enjoy having her there. There was the unfortunate fact that they all thought she was a boy, but even that was mitigated somewhat. Especially when Heidi, the former traitor that had since made up with everyone, told Ana that she should 'stay a girl', since they're 'so much better.'

If only she could. For a while, at least, she was able to, to some extent. She kept the fairy princess outfit on when she returned to the boys to tell them of the alliance, and none of them batted an eye. Given the kid named Kenny had been going by 'Princess Kenny' since Ana joined the game, she supposed there was no reason to be surprised. Regardless, she continued to wear her cute outfit the rest of the time she played the 'stick of truth' game with the boys.

She was dragged through a few more adventures, some fun, like assaulting Clyde's fortress with Wendy and Annie, and others deeply disturbing, like shrinking down and traveling through a man's intestines. There was also some government agent Ana ended up having to deal with, whose 'revelation' about her Facebook-friend-making ability lacked some of the punch it had in her original timeline, since her parents had already told her about it. Ana had no idea what happened to that man, after she saved the day with a fart. Maybe he died, or just went away forever. She wasn't sure, but he didn't bother Ana or her family anymore, at any rate.

The whole series of events was exhausting, but Ana was able to get through, focusing her mind on what she had to look forward to the next weekend. Namely, a party that Wendy had invited her to, shortly after wrapping up the issue with Heidi.

A message that read "Sleepover at Bebe's house next weekend! If you can see this post, you're invited! Don't tell anyone else about this post," had been posted to Ana's wall. This message had been received in both the timelines, but in the old one, she distinctly recalled _not_ going to the party. Partly because she had been less fond of the other girls then, but… that hadn't been the main reason. Really, it was a lack of confidence. A lack of belief in herself, as it were.

But now she _did_ believe in herself. Now she felt closer to these girls, who were flawed and occasionally jerks, sure, but good at heart. Or at least that's how Ana saw them. And the thought of spending an evening with several of them, of getting to go to a sleepover with a group of girls despite the false identity she was forced to inhabit… that wasn't something she couldn't let slip away, not in this reality.

There was just one problem - namely, her parents. There was no way they'd let her go to a sleepover with other girls. Well, there was some chance she could convince her mother, but definitely not her father. Ana debated back and forth with herself about how to handle the situation, but ultimately couldn't come up with any good ideas.

And so, two days before the party, she messaged Wendy.

"Please help. I wanna go to the party, but my parents won't let me if I ask directly. What do I do?"

Wendy replied surprisingly quickly. "What if you said you were going to spend the night at a boy's house?"

Ana had thought of that before, actually. "But Dad'll call the parents of whoever I say I'm staying with."

The next response was even quicker than the first. "Say you're staying with Stan. Then you go to his place, sneak out, and head to Bebe's house."

"Stan'll go along with it?"

"Definitely. I'll handle him, don't worry."

It worked like a charm. Ana's dad called and talked to Stan's mom, and that weekend Ana packed up and walked with her own mother to Stan's house. Stan's parents tried to talk to Ana when she arrived, which was awkward for all of them when they received no response. Stan intervened fairly quickly, insisting he and 'the New Kid' were eager to go play videogames and ushering Ana up the stairs. The last thing Ana heard from downstairs was her mother forcing a laugh and saying, "Sorry, he doesn't talk much."

Once Ana and Stan got to his room, he turned to her and said, "Wendy said you're gay and are gonna sneak out to go to a girl sleepover." Ana stared at him; he seemed really confused by the whole situation. "Look, I mean, that's cool that you're gay. It's whatever. But I don't get why you'd wanna hang out with girls." Ana continued to stare. There was silence for a long stretch, which seemed to make Stan very uncomfortable. "...I know you don't talk much, but it's kinda creepy, especially when it's just you and me." This did nothing to abate Ana's staring. "Yeah, uh, let's just get you the hell out of here."

A short while later Ana was out of Stan's house, by way of an open window and a long bit of rope that Wendy had given her earlier. It was only a few blocks to Bebe's house, where, after a knock, Bebe's dad welcomed Ana in with a smile. He attempted to make small talk as he escorted her downstairs, where the other girls were, but was unsuccessful. Fortunately, he didn't seem too bothered by it..

"You're here!" Bebe said with a grin, as her father went back upstairs. The other girls all looked excited too, and Wendy gave Ana a quick wink. The party was apparently a small one, as besides Ana, Bebe and Wendy, there were only three other girls - Red, Annie, and Heidi.

"We're _all_ here, now. So what do we wanna play first?" Bebe said.

"We could do light as a feather, stiff as a board!" Annie suggested. The other girls murmured in excitement.

"How about truth or dare?" Heidi threw out. The murmurs were lighter this time, and Ana could've sworn she saw a glare or two hurled Heidi's way.

Red stepped forward. "Hey, I brought the newest Justin Timberlake album. Let's dance to that first!"

"Yeah, what a great way to start!" Annie said. Was that another glare at Heidi?

The other girls all liked the dancing idea too. It didn't take long for Red to hook her phone up to some speakers, and soon enough all of them, even Ana, were dancing around in the middle of the room, smiling and laughing. Despite her 'dancing' being more of an awkward swaying, Ana enjoyed herself. She was even cheered on by the others once or twice. They didn't end up listening to the whole album, though, only managing to get through "Strawberry Bubblegum" before everyone became too tired to continue dancing..

After creating a small circle of bean bags, the girls all flopped onto them and sighed happily.

"How about truth or dare _now_?" Heidi said, smiling hopefully.

"Sure!" Wendy said, meeting everyone besides Ana's eyes before looking her way.

"I've already got a bottle," Bebe said, hopping up and walking over to a dresser, which she pulled a clear plastic bottle out of. Plopping back onto her bean bag, she placed the bottle between everyone, then called 'first dibs' and spun it. Around and around it spun, before finally coming to a stop, pointing a little between Ana and Wendy.

"It's more on the New Kid's side, right?" Annie said.

"Definitely!" said Bebe.

Ana was pretty sure it was closer to Wendy, but it didn't seem worth arguing about.

Holding up a hand, Wendy said, "Wait, we should set up some extra rules."

Red rolled her eyes dramatically. "That sounds boring."

Wendy ignored her. "Just a few. The New Kid doesn't like to talk, right?" The other girls nodded. "So whenever the bottle lands on, uh, him, then he can hold up one finger for 'truth' or two fingers for 'dare'."

"That's a great idea!" Heidi called out.

"Thanks, Heidi," Wendy said before continuing. "And if he chooses 'truth', then we've got to keep it to 'yes or no' questions. That way he can keep holding up fingers - one for 'yes', two for 'no.' Does that all sound good?" She turned to look at Ana as she asked the last question. Ana immediately held up one finger.

Laughter briefly swept through the group, and despite no smile on her face, Ana felt really happier than she had in a long time.

"So, New Kid, truth or dare?" Bebe said.

Ana held up one finger.

Red immediately blurted a question out. "So are you gay?"

One finger. The other girls gasped, one or two of them 'oooh'ing. "I knew it!" proclaimed Bebe.

It was Ana's turn to spin, and this time the bottle landed on Annie. There was silence for a moment, before Annie shot a glare Wendy's way. "No one else is saying anything, and you didn't give a rule for when _he_ spins the bottle."

"How about 'same question'?" Heidi offered.

"Heidi, that's du-" Bebe started, stopping when she noticed Ana had raised a finger again.

With a shrug, Annie said, "Fair enough. No, I'm straight as a board."

"Your chest is, at least," Red said with a smirk.

"Red, please," Wendy said, sighing.

Throwing a glare at Red, Annie spun the bottle, which ended up landing between Ana and Red, noticeably more on Red's side.

"Ooh, new kid again!" Annie said. The other girls all agreed.

Wendy was the one to ask a question this time. "So you like boys, then?"

Throwing her arms up, Red said, "Why're you wasting a question, that's what 'gay' mea-" She stopped, staring at Ana's two raised fingers.

"Wait, what the fu-" Bebe started, but Ana was already spinning the bottle again. It landed on Heidi.

"Yeah, I like boys," Heidi said. She spun the bottle, and this time it pointed directly at Ana, who was starting to think this game was rigged.

"How the hell are you gay but you don't like boys?" Bebe said.

Whacking Bebe's arm, Red said, "That's not a yes or no, stupid."

Heidi suddenly gasped really loudly. "Wait, New Kid, do you wanna stay a girl, 'cause we're better?"

Ana held up one finger.

All the other girls gasped, with the noticeable exception of Wendy. Most of them seemed shocked, though Heidi had a giant smile on her face.

"Whoa, so he's one of those, uh… trams!" she said, practically shouting.

"It's 'she', and 'trans', Heidi," Wendy corrected. "Right?" she said, looking to Ana, who raised one finger.

This was all happening way quicker than Ana had ever imagined, but it was actually making her giddy inside. Surely her parents couldn't blame her for spilling the beans... it was 'truth or dare', afterall, she couldn't just _lie_.

"Wait, so you're trans, but you're into _girls_?" Bebe said, incredulous. She hadn't spun the bottle, and it wasn't her turn anyway, but Ana still raised one finger.

"I thought trans girls were just really gay former men, though," Bebe said.

"No, Bebe, that's stupid," Red replied irritably. "Gender and sexuality are different."

"And she was never actually a guy, right?" Wendy said, glancing at Ana again, who eagerly raised a finger.

Bebe rolled her eyes. "Fine, sorry, New Kid. But if you're gay, does that mean you wanna date me?"

Punching Bebe's arm again, Red said, "Bebe, I know it's your party, and thanks for inviting me, but you're being a real asshole right now."

Ignoring the argument that immediately flared up between Bebe and Red, Annie said to Ana, "So do your parents know?"

Ana held up two fingers, drawing a few more gasps.

"Whoa, so your parents are bigots?" Heidi asked.

Not raising any fingers this time, Ana instead grabbed her phone. Starting a Facebook group chat between all the girls there, Ana sent a message that read, "No, not really, it's complicated."

Bebe and Red stopped fighting to read it, and the girls all gave Ana sympathetic looks.

"Hey, so, do you want us to call you 'she' and 'her' and stuff all the time?" Annie said.

Immediately, Ana felt her head start moving, shaking emphatically up and down. A smile even broke out on her face.

"She's really cute when she shows emotion," Red said, pointing and giggling. Bebe gave her a look, to which she shrugged. "Just saying."

"Do you want us to start telling everyone at school that you're a girl?" Wendy asked, looking at Ana intently. At first raising one finger, Ana's bubble of happiness popped, and she reluctantly raised a second finger. Typing on her phone again, she sent a message that read, "Don't, my parents would be mad. I'm supposed to hide my identity."

"Holy crap, are you a spy or something?" Bebe said.

Responding in the group chat, Ana 'said', "No. I can't talk about it, though."

Sitting up on her bean bag, Wendy waved her hands a little. "Hey, girls, we've been hounding her with questions for a while now. Let's actually play the game, huh?" Not waiting for a response, she leaned back over and gave the bottle a spin.

The game went on for a while, with Ana being chosen far less frequently than when they had first played. Every time the bottle pointed at her, however, she chose 'truth', and after the fifth time she tried to do this, Bebe said, "Com'on, girl, you've got to choose 'dare' already!"

At first, Ana did nothing. Then she held up two fingers. Before anyone else could suggest a dare, she quickly lowered the fingers, then raised them both again.

"Are you… are you choosing 'double dare'!?" Heidi said in excitement.

Ana raised one finger.

The other girls clapped and 'ooh'ed. "We've gotta pick something _good_ ," Bebe said.

It was quiet for a bit as they all tried to think of a good dare. It was Red who threw an idea out first. "Let's dare the New Kid and Wendy to kiss!"

Eyes going wide, Ana glanced at Wendy, whose eyes were similar, and whose cheeks were burning.

"She's dating Stan, Red! Don't do that to her!" Bebe said.

With a roll of her eyes, Red said, "It's just a dare!"

"It's a crappy one!"

"Well _you_ weren't giving any ideas!"

The two of them continued bickering, and neither Annie nor Heidi suggested anything else. Wendy leaned close to Ana, her voice a whisper.

"Want me to do it quickly?" Ana could feel her own face growing really warm. Wendy's eyes darted downwards, then back to Ana's. "Just, you know, so they'll shut up."

Shakily, Ana raised a finger.

Wendy took a deep breath, like she was steeling herself, then put a hand beneath Ana's chin, turning the girl's head toward to more directly face her. Then, quickly and without further warning, she leaned in and pecked Ana on the lips.

Heidi shouted 'whoop whoop', shortly followed by another 'whoop' from Annie. Bebe and Red looked over, the both of them seeming to realize at about the same time what had just happened. Bebe frowned at Wendy, and Red threw her hands up again.

"I can't believe I missed it!"

The game ended after that, at Bebe's request. The remainder of the night was less eventful, but no less fun. There were makeovers, including one for Ana, there was gossip about people Ana didn't really know, and before they went to sleep, they sat in a bean bag circle again and told ghost stories. It was a fantastic night, even if Ana had to get up early to sneak back to Stan's house.

Wendy was the only girl that was awake to say goodbye. She did more than that, though, actually walking Ana back to Stan's house without request. She seemed satisfied to walk in silence most of the way, to Ana's relief. It was only as they neared the rope still hanging out of Stan's window that Wendy spoke.

"I'm really glad you came, Ana."

Ana's eyes almost popped out of her skull.

Giggling a little, Wendy said, "Sorry, shouldn't have surprised you with that. But yeah, I know your name - your real one. I mean, I know… a lot of your names, actually, and I wasn't completely sure that was the right one, but… I assume it was?"

Ana held up one finger.

Wendy beamed. "Anyway, yeah, I'm really glad you came. You're a pretty cool person, you know? We should hang out more."

One finger.

Wendy giggled, but then furrowed her brow. "Do you not know sign language?"

Two fingers.

"The hell's wrong with your parents?" Wendy muttered, seemingly more to herself. "Well, whatever, I've gotta get back. See you later, 'New Kid'!"

Before Wendy could walk away, Ana raised both her arms. For a moment, Wendy just stared, then she burst out laughing. Ana really liked it when she laughed.

"Sure," Wendy said, moving in for the hug. It lasted a good ten seconds or so, and then Wendy pulled away, waved, and left for real.

Climbing up the rope proved a fairly easy task, after which Ana untied it and stuffed it away, closed the window, and snuggled into the sleeping bag Stan had left on the floor. Despite his snoring, she actually managed to drift back to sleep for a while, her mind replaying bits of the sleepover as she did. The last thing she remembered thinking about before losing consciousness was Wendy's face, smiling and giggling.


	3. Changes and Call Girl

Let's finally get to The Fractured But Whole stuff, huh?

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The timeline changes after that slumber party were relatively minimal, but significant, at least to Ana. She found herself going back and forth between hanging with the girls and with the boys, and she even got to go to a few more sleepovers. But, eventually, the dark time came in both versions of her memory - that awful period of time that Ana thought of as 'The Boy vs. Girl War.'

It started with some awful internet troll, and it spiraled out from there, until the whole school seemed to be dividing itself into 'girls' and 'boys', demanding every student pick a side. In both timelines this was an extraordinarily difficult period of time for Ana, especially once Butters made it so genital-focused. There was one thing that made it easier in the new timeline, though - Wendy.

Truth be told, Wendy had made some attempt to shield Ana from the 'War' in both timelines. In the original, Ana could still vaguely recall Wendy storming up to her, while surrounded by boys, and telling her how big a jerk she was, 'just like the other boys'. This had mostly confused, and admittedly kinda hurt, Ana at the time, even while she'd been grateful that it had gotten the boys off her back about not exposing herself and marching with them. At the time she had thought Wendy might've gotten her confused with someone else, but in retrospect, it was clearly a ploy all along.

In this new timeline, though, Ana actually talked - well, texted - Wendy, as the War escalated.

"What do I do!? I can't march with the boys, not with them doing… doing that! But they won't get off my back about it!" Ana texted.

"I could cause a scene in front of them, call you a jerk and stuff, let them think you're with them even if you're shy," Wendy offered.

Though she took a moment to think about it, Ana knew her answer immediately. "I'm NOT on their side, though! The girls are clearly right, and I… I hate having the other girls shun me. I don't want to make it worse. But I can't pick the girl's side, or it'll raise questions and my parents will be pissed."

It took Wendy a little longer to respond than usual - probably only a matter of seconds, but they passed like hours. "I just messaged the others." Ana implicitly knew that this meant all the other girls that had been at that fateful sleepover. Though they shunned her in public, all of them, besides the now offline Heidi, were still friendly with her in private online spaces. "We've got a plan to keep the boys off your back, so don't worry your pretty head about it anymore."

"...What kind of head was that?"

It took Wendy longer to respond this time than when she had apparently been texting a bunch of other girls. When she finally sent something, it was one word only. "Typo."

Ana audibly giggled.

{}

Wendy's plan worked like a charm. Every time boys started harassing her about marching, one of the 'sleepover girls' would arrive to start yelling at them about some made-up slight. It worked every time, making the boys forget that Ana hadn't actually marched with them for usually another day, at least.

And the girls kept it up, too. The 'War' lasted for.. well, weeks, at least. It was a bit difficult to keep track of time in South Park, so Ana wasn't completely sure how much time had even passed since she moved to town. But however long it was, the girls kept the diversions up, all the way to the end of the War.

After that, life was relatively easy again. The only issue was that it was getting harder and harder for Ana to deal with being thought of as a boy. It had to have been months by now, and it was really wearing on her. Yet still she played with the boys whenever they asked her, which was usually whenever they felt like playing the 'Stick of Truth' game again. Ana hated being referred to as 'the King', but at least she got to kick a lot of people's butts because of that title, which was nice.

So it was one day that they were playing the Stick of Truth, and Ana destroyed a dragon with one blow, and then… Cartman arrived, dressed as a superhero, and changed everything.

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Cartman had been really reluctant to let her play superheroes with the boys, but she hadn't taken no for an answer, literally staring the jerk down until he gave in. And for a while, it was fun. She made a cute costume, and she helped out Kyle, and Craig, who were both much more fun to be around than Cartman. She just generally had a fun time, running around the town and pretending to shoot fireballs out of her hands.

But then she was told to fight the sixth graders. That grade was notorious among her own for having a ton of really mean boys in it, and while she looked forward to beating them up, she in no way looked forward to actually being around them.

It was so much worse than she'd imagined, though. The sixth graders were merciless, beyond mean, throwing slurs like 'queer' and 'fag' her way, calling her a 'girly boy', insulting her costume. It was all too much, and the fight ended with her being dragged off an unconscious boy by Kyle, because she refused to stop punching the kid's face.

The "dude" when Kyle asked her if she was okay was the final nail in the coffin, causing her to fall to the ground and bawl her eyes out. Neither Craig nor Kyle seemed to have any idea how to handle this. They both clearly wanted to run for it, but apparently possessed _just_ enough sense to realize that it would be particularly heartless to leave a kid crying on the street.

When Ana finally stopped sobbing, Kyle approached awkwardly, and said he'd go ahead and tell Cartman not to give her anymore missions for now, until she was feeling better. Ana barely managed to force a nod, which was all the permission the two boys needed to allow them to run off.

Still sniffling, Ana pulled her phone out of her pocket, irritated to note the screen had a small crack in it, and flicked through her Facebook friends. She'd found it a little odd that a school guidance counselor had wanted to be "friends" with her, but now, she was thankful for it.

"Mr. Mackey," she typed, "I want to talk about gender, or sex, or whatever you call it."

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It was a little annoying hearing Mackey try to explain what being transgender meant to her, but his heart seemed to be in the right place. And regardless, she was just happy to be able to tell someone. It was so freeing to admit to an adult who she really was. Her parents would be upset, but she was past the point of caring about that anymore. Though admittedly, her heart did flutter slightly with fear when Mackey actually called her home… she assumed her mother picked up, given the seeming lack of denials. In fact, if anything, the person on the other end of the line seemed to be _defensive_ of Ana, judging by Mackey's reactions, and she couldn't imagine her father being the one to do that.

But all this happened in both timelines. No matter what happened before, it seemed Ana could take pretending to be a boy for only so long. What actually changed that day for this timeline took place after, when Cartman told Ana to go help out Mosquito, aka Clyde.

It started the same as last time. Mosquito, trying to get out of paying his bill or leaving a tip at the restaurant Raisins, attempted to rope Ana into helping him fight the Raisins girls. In the last timeline, though it hurt her to admit it, she hadn't been strong enough as a person to refuse. Too scared of the boys ostracizing her and leaving her with no friends at all, she'd helped Mosquito, and deservedly earned the Raisins girls' wrath.

But not this time. She had friends among the girls, now, and more than that, she believed in herself, friends or no friends. And so when Mosquito tried to get her to join in a fight, she crossed her arms and stared him down.

"New Kid, com'on, they're not gonna let us go unless we fight!" Clyde insisted.

Ana continued to stare.

"Fine, then I'll fight alone!" Clyde proclaimed.

Jutting an arm forward, Ana launched a fireball at Mosquito.

Crying out and jumping up and down, briefly covered in 'flames', Mosquito yelled, "Hey, what's the big idea!?"

"Hey, girls, this kid's on our side," said a blonde girl, who'd introduced herself earlier as Mercedes, with a grin. The other Raisins girls smiled too, even as they all glared menacingly at Mosquito.

"I-I… I won't give in!" Mosquito said, voice wavering.

It only took another fireball, a few kicks, and a good scratch from one of the girls for him to change his tune, tossing the entire contents of his pockets to the ground. "Here, this is all I have!" he practically screamed.

Another girl, Porche, looked the money over. "It's not enough."

"I don't have anything else, you crazy bitches!" Ana tossed another fireball at him for good measure.

Two other girls grabbed each of Mosquito's arms, dragging him away to the kitchen. He screamed, calling Ana a 'traitor', but this only served to make her happy.

Positively beaming, Merecedes turned to Ana. "Thanks, cutie! We really appreciate it! You feel free to stop by anytime, and we'll even give you a discount!"

Feeling her cheeks heating up, Ana forced herself to shake her head up and down, then bee-lined for the exit. She knew Mercedes thought she was a boy, and that flattery was the restaurant's whole schtick, but it still flustered her to be complimented by such a cute girl.

Later, Cartman berated her for fighting against her own ally, but she offered no apology, and wouldn't have even if she were more prone to talking. Fortunately for her, the boys still wanted to play with her, Kyle even admitting that Clyde was being 'a dick.' The rest of the day proceeded as normal.

When she returned home that evening, her parents were arguing, her father unsurpringly irritated that her mother had talked to Mr. Mackey. In one version of her memories, however, they had fought much more hatefully, calling each other names and resorting to alcohol and pot to deal with their issues. But in this version, the argument was resolved shortly after Ana returned home, with her father admitting he was glad that talking to a counselor made Ana feel better, even if he was still worried about the government finding them.

Later in the night, she went on a secret mission with the boys, to a place called The Peppermint Hippo. It took her and 'Captain Diabetes' a while to find the woman they were looking for, and when they did, she ran off, mistaking them for cops somehow.

The two young superheroes went into the back room, only to be faced with a group of strippers willing to defend their coworker. In another world, Ana and Captain Diabetes fought through them, but this time, Ana felt sure enough to try her own plan.

It was simple, really. She typed a message on her phone, then handed it to the first woman in their way.

"We're not police, we're just kids. We wanna ask Classi about a missing cat."

The mood in the room instantly changed. The woman, an older lady named Blaze, turned toward the others and waved them over. Classi was skeptical, but cautiously approached, staying in the back. Blaze read the message out to them, and they were all instantly less on guard.

"Oh, is _that_ all?" Classi said, pushing to the front. "I'll talk, but you little superheroes hafta offer me protection! And you gotta take out these guys next door! I know those Tony Soprano muthafuckas can't be trusted, and I ain't waitin' for them to turn on me!"

After fighting some cooks and a red-wine-drunk version of Stan's dad, Classi was ready to talk, and went to meet the other members of Cartman's superhero group in his basement. Ana recalled having the conversation in both timelines. Then Cartman's mom found them out and sent them all home for the night.

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Despite the previous day's changes, the next day went much the same as it had before, at first. Mosquito threw dirty looks Ana's way a lot, but otherwise, it was the same.

Except this time, when she was ganged up on in an alleyway, it wasn't angry Raisins girls, but angry sixth graders trying to take her out. The idea of having to put up with their appalling insults again made her stomach turn, but she had to defend herself is she was going to get out of this.

But then, before any of the sixth graders managed to throw a punch, their phones started vibrating. One by one they checked their phones, and one by one they appeared horrified by what they saw. "I'm being hacked!" one cried. "It's a troll!" said another. They all started running away, shouting angrily, one or two of them crying, none of them looking back at her.

There was a sound behind her, like someone had just leaped to the ground. "Hello, Ana."

Swiveling around, eyes wide, Ana was pleasantly surprised to see Wendy, dressed up in her own superhero costume. "Don't worry, I'm unfriending their Facebooks and Instagrams exponentially," she said, looking at Ana while her thumbs danced across two phone screens. "They won't be back for a while."

Unable to stifle her joy, Ana pulled Wendy into a hug, squeezing her tight. The other girl seemed fine with this, despite her soft blush when Ana pulled away.

"I've been watching you play this superhero game with the boys since yesterday… but when I saw those jerks trying to gang up on you, all alone… well, I couldn't let that happen."

Wendy was the best.

"Look, Ana, I've got to warn you. What you did last night got a lot of people's attention. _Bad_ people. There's a crime boss who's been calling the shots here in South Park, and now that person is planning to run for office. What you did last night scared him."

How exasperating. Maybe she should just stop playing with the boys… it seemed like they kept dragging her into messes like this.

"Don't worry, I'm tracking everyone's Instagrams and Facebooks, and will continue to cross-reference with Tumblr, while monitoring Twitter and LinkedIn. If you need information, just know you can rely on _Call Girl_!" She struck a pose as she called out her superhero name, which Ana simultaneously found awesome and adorable.

A smile growing on her lips, Ana whipped out her phone. "Cute name," she texted.

"Hehee, thanks," Wendy said with a smirk and a wink. "But seriously, I know you're playing with the boys, and they won't want to play with me, but I'm here if you need me." There was a pause, as the two girls stared at each other, neither saying a word. Reluctantly, Wendy started to turn away. "Well I should probably let you get back to it. Don't want to blow your cover, afterall."

"Wait," Ana texted. Wendy turned back toward her. The words were difficult to type, at first, but she had to. She couldn't stand it any longer. "I don't want to pretend to be a boy anymore. No matter what my parents want." Wendy looked surprised, but didn't say anything, no doubt taking note of the fact that Ana was still typing. "I already talked to Mr. Mackey yesterday, and I told him the truth. He messaged me a little bit ago, wants to talk about it some more, and I'm going to _keep_ telling him the truth. I'm going to ask him to tell the rest of the school. I'm tired of hiding."

Solemnly, Wendy nodded. Then she smiled. "Hopefully you already know this, but… I totally support you. I've known you were a girl since the day you moved here, or, well, I figured, at least. I was _sure_ once you came to talk to us at our base, back when we were all playing the Stick of Truth. I didn't want to push, though. It, you know, wasn't my place." Reaching out and taking Ana's hands in her own, she said, "I'm glad you don't feel like you have to hide anymore. I hope this makes you happier. And I'll be there with you! I mean," her cheeks flushed a little, "if you want, of course."

"I-I do," Ana said.

Unable to suppress a gasp, Wendy slapped a hand over her own mouth, a look of shock on her face. That was fair, Ana supposed, few people besides her parents had ever heard her speak.

"Your voice," Wendy said, still wide-eyed. "It's…" She seemed to think better of it, and clamped her mouth shut, shaking her head back and forth.

It took effort to force out another word, but Ana was determined. "What?"

Wendy gasped again, blushing furiously. "I, uh.. It's just…" Taking a deep breath, she mumbled, "It's cute."

Ana could feel her own face flushing. There was no hope of her being able to speak anymore now. Grabbing her phone, she texted, "Um, thank you. No one's said that before, but-" She steeled herself, intent on typing the whole thought. "I like hearing you say it."

Though her face was now crimson, Wendy smiled. Then, slowly, reluctantly, she pulled away. "I, uh… I should _really_ be going now, I have… _things_ I need to take care of. B-but text me! Please. I-if you need me, of course!"

Ana smiled.

Seemingly unable to handle anymore of this moment, Wendy turned away, jumped up onto a dumpster, and used that to start climbing a fire escape. "Later, girl!" she called out, just before she climbed out of sight.

It took a few minutes for Ana to finally stop staring after her, and to continue on to her actual mission. But she had a feeling that, for the rest of the day, her mind would be drifting back to that wonderful, _wonderful_ conversation… and the feeling of Wendy holding her hand.

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It's fun to constantly make things as gay as possible, let me tell you.


	4. Girlfriends

After her conversation with "Call Girl", Ana's day went similarly in both timelines. She fought Kyle's family, then apologized after. She defended herself against an angry sentient towel and then helped it get high to stop it from attacking her. She acted as a go-between with Craig and Tweek, conspiring with the latter's parents to get the two boys to go to couple's therapy.

And then she had another meeting with Mr. Mackey, who had been told by PC Principal that he wasn't 'thorough enough' in talking about gender the day before. The principal could be an idiot, but sometimes he managed to knock it out of the park - Ana was pretty sure it was always a fluke when that happened. Regardless, the talk with Mackey let Ana specify that she considered herself bigender, partly a binary girl and partly a nonbinary one. She wasn't sure Mackey really understood it, but he accepted it, which was all she really needed.

Her interactions with the South Park cops, however, were different. They started off trying to get her to beat up Nichole Daniels' dad, claiming he was some sort of drug kingpin. She refused, but they tried again later, claiming they'd been incorrect and that it was actually Token Black's father that was the kingpin. Again, Ana saw through this flimsy, racist lie and refused to help.

After that, Ana managed to convince Cartman, through staring, to give her even _more_ superpowers (she'd convinced him to let her dual-class before), she participated in another Civil War between superhero groups, and finally, together with Stan (or Toolshed, his superhero identity), she infiltrated the U-Store-It facility.

It turned out Butters had taken over the place, and that he had also received a large sum of money to defend it. All of Cartmen's group of superheroes, plus Toolshed, fought through the facility, until… until _Wendy_ showed up again, to Ana's delight.

"Why would Chaos want to wrap an entire truck in aluminum foil?" Craig said, as the group passed by one of said trucks.

"That's not the problem!" a voice called out from above. Wendy, or rather Call Girl, stepped to the edge of the storage unit's roof, hands on her hips. "Is aluminum foil _really_ what you guys are concerned with?"

The whole group was surprised, though for Ana, it was pleasantly so. The rest of them gathered around Craig and Ana, and Cartman seemed unhappy.

"Who the _fuck_ is _that_?" he said, glaring at Wendy. Ana shot her own glare his way, but he didn't notice.

"You were right about the Italian restaurant, New Kid," Wendy said, staring directly at Ana and not giving Cartman the benefit of a glance. "The owner is a part of a new crime syndicate."

"Who the fuck is that ?" Cartman said, his anger rising. Ana found herself resisting the urge to slug him.

"I have no idea," Stan said. That was unexpected… did he really not recognize her?

"Well she's _not_ in the union!" Cartman shouted, practically spitting. Turning back to look up at Call Girl, he said, "Excuse me, are you on Coonstagram?"

Wendy continued only talking to Ana, to Ana's amusement. "There's someone new in town, who's bringing all the crime families together."

"Okay, cool, thank you, bye," Cartman said, waving his hand.

Jimmy either didn't notice Cartman's attempt to end the conversation, or he didn't care. "Y-you mean like a kingpin?"

Cartman rushed over to stand in front of them all, arms outstretched. "You guys, don't say anything! We're _not_ playing with her."

Rolling her eyes, Wendy said, "Check out storage facility 56-D, New Kid." Holding up one of her phones, she gave a smile and a wink, shooting right through Ana's heart. "Text me if you need me. I think you're going to need all the help you can get." With that, she ran off, disappearing from sight.

"So I guess now any fucking asshole thinks they can be a superhero," Cartman griped.

Ana punched him in the face.

"What the _fuck_ , New Kid!?" he yelled, a hand on his undoubtedly sore cheek.

Ana extended her middle finger, then walked away. Glancing back, she was pleased to see that the other boys, sans Cartman, followed suit, none of them seeming sorry for the jerk.

Despite strong glares from Cartman, the group continued pushing through the facility, fighting General Disarray and some other Chaos goons. Eventually, they found the storage unit Wendy had directed them to, where they found several men running a 'cheesing' lab. They fought the men, and Call Girl dropped by to help. The fight ended with a giant explosion that the kids barely avoided.

Though he did nothing but glare daggers at Call Girl and Ana, Cartman kept his mouth shut as Wendy continued to help for the rest of the night. At one point, Wendy texted Ana asking what was up with Cartman's face, probably because he kept holding his cheek with one hand. When Ana texted her back with the answer, she laughed out loud, garnering even more glares from the jerk.

There was a big fight with Butters, and then a meeting in Cartman's basement for everyone besides Call Girl. Ana promised to tell her about it later. After Cartman suggested that an alter-ego of his own hand was the mysterious person bringing the crime families together, Kyle called it quits for the night, and Ana was eager to follow suit.

The next day, after school, Wendy took Ana aside.

"Thanks for filling me in on Cartman's meeting," she said with a grin. The smile disappeared quickly. "But, that little problem Call Girl told you about? It's a _lot_ worse."

Ana couldn't help but sigh. How could this mess get _worse_?

"The Chamber of Commerce wants to get rid of the vigilante no matter what it takes," Wendy whispered. The news had taken to referring to Ana as a vigilante, conveniently ignoring all the other kids and focusing only on her, for some reason. She was just glad they didn't actually know who she was. "You know the bathrooms in the park?" Ana blinked. "Call Girl wants you to meet her there - _right now_."

With no reason to waste time, Ana went that way immediately, though the two of them took separate routes. Neither their superhero alter-egos nor their regular selves were really 'supposed' to hang out together, though Ana hoped they could agree to stop caring about that soon.

It didn't take long for Ana to reach the bathroom in the park, where Call Girl was already waiting. "It's clear," she said, gesturing at the stalls. Then she told Ana that she'd noticed the adults in town acting strange, something Ana had noticed as well. She explained that she'd been researching on the internet to try to figure out what was going on, but someone cancelled her phone's data plan.

"My phone is _dead_ ," she said, shaking the deceased device in her hand. Ana stared at it in horror. The idea of being without her phone, of being without what was often her only means of communication with people, was terrifying. Wendy might not be as reliant on it, but still, Ana could relate.

"Whoever did this _has_ to pay," Wendy said, shaking. Ana couldn't agree more. "I'm going to D-Mobile to find out what happened. I… I don't want to go alone." This seemed difficult for her… Ana had asked for help before on multiple occasions, but in retrospect, Wendy had never done the same. Ana wondered if it was just because of how independent Wendy always seemed to be, or if there was some sort of underlying fear there. "I'm… I'm asking for your help, Ana." She looked directly into Ana's eyes. "I think... I think you're the only one who understands."

Eyes going wide, Ana was hit with realization. Were she and Wendy more alike than she'd realized? Had Wendy once been as reliant on that sort of technology as Ana was now? It was hard to imagine, given how much more socially adept Wendy seemed to be, compared to her, but it wasn't impossible.

Ana forced out a nod, which brought a smile to Wendy's nervous face. "Thanks," she said, pulling something out of her pockets. "Hey, um, if you want, take this bracelet." It was a charm bracelet, and obviously homemade. It was rainbow colored, and the charms in the middle had letters that spelled out the word 'girlfriends.'

"I have one too," she said, extending her wrist, where, sure enough, a similar bracelet sat. "And you could use it as one of those 'artifact' things, to power your superhero self up." She smiled hopefully, and seemed confused by Ana's bug-eyed expression.

Pulling out her phone and typing furiously, Ana showed the screen to Wendy as soon as she'd finished. It read: " _**Girlfriends**_!?"

Wendy's eyes went wide too, and she stared at her own bracelet for a good half a minute. "I- I... I hadn't thought about… I just meant-" She grimaced. "They're _rainbow colored_ , too! How did I not-" Turning her wide eyes back to Ana, she said, "I'm sorry! I meant, like, friends who are girls! ...I'm around straight girls all the time and I just - I understand if you don't want to keep it, I-"

Ana turned her phone's screen toward Wendy again. This time, it read, "I'll keep it, if you decide you mean it in the gay way."

Face going bright red, Wendy said, "I-I-I-I…. I'vegottothinkaboutit." She practically sprinted toward the bathroom door, managing to say one more thing before she threw it open and ran for it: "I'll meet you at D-Mobile."

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This time, Ana was in no rush to reach her destination. She knew Wendy would need some time and space, and besides, she was content replaying the end of their conversation over and over again in her head.

When she finally reached the phone store, Wendy's face was a normal color, and she didn't say a word about what had just happened.

"Alright, are you ready to do this?" she asked as Ana approached. "If I can't use my mobile devices, I can't save this town! Let's find out what wrong with this place."

Stepping inside, the problem was immediately obvious. It was crab people; they had taken over the store. Which was unfortunate for Ana, who had listed "crab people" as her superhero kryptonite, since she hadn't anticipated actually meeting any.

With Wendy by her side, though, they wiped the floor with the jerks.

Once the store's human employees were released, they came forward to thank their heroes.

"Thank you both! I don't know what those things were, but they smelled like crab and kissed like people." Both girls stared blankly. "...How can we repay you?"

"Just get my phone working again, alright?" Wendy said.

"Yes, yes of course, Call Girl! Thanks for saving the mobile store once again."

As soon as her phone service was restored, Wendy and Ana left the store and started walking. They did so in silence for a bit, Ana glancing Wendy's way a few times. But Wendy refused to make eye contact, seeming to prefer the sight of the ground.

Finally, after several minutes of walking aimlessly, Wendy spoke. "Thanks for helping out there…" Silence again, then, "So, um… so you would… want to be my girlfriend?" Only at the end did she look at Ana, her eyes wide and scared.

It took no small amount of effort, but Ana managed to say, "Yes."

Cheeks flushing once more, a grin formed on Wendy's face, even as she looked away again. After a moment, the smile faded. "...Stan will be upset."

Ana grabbed her phone and texted, "I thought you two broke up."

Wendy sighed. "We did, but… well, he still gets jealous."

"Screw him," Ana texted. "If you're not together, he doesn't get to be. Or at least he needs to keep it to himself."

There was no response for a bit, and Wendy's face was… forlorn. "Yeah… you're right. I guess I still have some feelings for him, but… well, to be honest with myself, you're way better than him, anyway. He's never been a great boyfriend, really though I tried to deny it."

Coming to a halt, Wendy turned toward Ana, her face determined. "That settles it. Ana, will you…. Will you be my girlfriend?"

Ana answered with an immediate and passionate hug.

Though present Ana was still intent on sorting through her memories, it almost didn't matter anymore. She was now sure that, whatever negatives might prove to exist in this timeline, it was _far_ better than the last one. Taking a brief break from her thoughts, she turned to look at her bedside table, focusing in on a certain rainbow-colored bracelet that she hadn't fully recognized before. She smiled.

Ana had a girlfriend.

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Probably only one more chapter after this one, folks! See you then!


	5. Confessions

The next two days were… tiring. But largely the same in both timelines. Ana helped put a stop to the corrupt police force's ritualistic sacrificing of black people to an elder god. She went with Craig and Tweek to couple's counseling, and helped the two of them reconcile. She helped a gay fish's mother reach heaven. But the biggest, and most annoying, thing she had to deal with was Cartman's plans, which involved kidnapping her parents and genetic mutation.

All the kid superheroes went to Dr. Mephesto's genetics lab, and the horrors within were all awful and nightmarish. Still, Ana's dealings with the lab's unleashed mutations went much the same in both timelines…

Until she found her parents.

In one version of her memories, finding her parents proved to be a singularly horrific occasion. Her father had been strapped to a table to be experimented on, and her mother had been grievously wounded. Ana had been forced to make a choice - a horrible, horrible choice. For any of them to escape the room, one of her parents had to die. And Ana had to be the one to kill them. Her father's screams still echoed in her mind, haunting her virtually every night.

But not this time. This time, when she found her parents, she found them hiding in a corner of the lab, together, unhurt. They had worked together to stay alive, and they were at once ecstatic and infuriated to see Ana - glad she was safe, but furious that she was in such a horrible place to begin with. Neither scolding nor celebrating lasted long, however, as all three family members realized they needed to escape while they still had the chance. But they were faced with a similar dilemma - DNA was needed from them in order to leave the room. The solution, in retrospect, was simple, and she wondered how no one thought of it within a different subset of her memories. Her father cut his thumb and bled into the machine, and it allowed them passage.

After that came the second big change. The kids were forced to fight a mutated version of Kyle's cousin, and he was a formidable foe. In one lifetime, Ana had finished the beast with an ultra-powerful fart that had also launched them all forward in time, to disastrous effect. But in this timeline, after seeing her own parent's teamwork, Ana was inspired to use teamwork with her friends to get the better of the monster, who they managed to outwit and incapacitate without resorting to powerful farts.

And with no time travel shenanigans, it was easy to stop Cartman from taking over the town. They kicked the villain's butt, and resolved never to play superheroes with him ever again.

Ana wondered to herself if such a promise would hold up… for whatever reason, the boys kept hanging out with Cartman, despite all the awful things he did. Ana, for her part, would have no more to do with him, that much she was sure of.

{}

After taking most of the day to reflect, Ana had managed to sort through all her memories. She knew what had changed, and what hadn't, and she now knew two very important things: she had a girlfriend, and she could no longer keep pretending to be a boy.

It was time to text Wendy.

"I want to tell the boys about my real gender."

The response came almost immediately. "Which boys?"

"The ones we played superheroes with, at least. Except Cartman, fuck him. Everyone else will find out at school soon anyway."

The next response from Wendy took a while. "Okay, I'm setting it up for us to meet at Token's after school. You want me to bring the 'sleepover crew', too, for backup?"

Ana smiled. Wendy always had such good ideas. "Yes, please!"

"Btw, why aren't you at school?"

That was… difficult to explain. She tried a simple approach. "Had some stuff I needed to sort out, so I faked being sick."

"Gotcha. You gonna be allowed to leave, if your parents think you're sick?"

"Worst case I can just sneak out."

Fortunately, she didn't have to. When she went downstairs that afternoon, her mother was happy to see her feeling better, and took no issue with her leaving the house.

"Just take it easy, okay, honey?"

She planned to. Physically, at least. Emotionally, well… she would just have to see.

{}

"What's this all about, Wendy?" Stan asked, once everyone had finally arrived. Judging by how much he kept glancing at them, he seemed particularly confused about the girls Wendy had brought with her. Red, Bebe, Annie, even Heidi came, despite Cartman not being invited.

"It's about the New Kid," Wendy said, gesturing at Ana. Stan and the rest of the boys turned their eyes on her, all of them confused. "The New Kid doesn't want to pretend to be something they're not anymore, right?"

Ana nodded.

"Is this about him being gay?" Kyle said, stepping forward. "I think we all already assumed-"

"I-I didn't!" Butters shouted, in shock.

Looking to Wendy, Ana was amused to see a smirk on her face. They were close to the truth, yet so very, very far. Wendy looked back at Ana, who nodded again.

" _She_ is gay."

Silence overtook the room. That simple sentence seemed to be amazingly difficult for the boys to process.

"So… you're saying the New Kid is…" Kyle paused, staring at Ana with wide eyes.

"She's a girl!" Red shouted.

Stan spoke again. "Like, the whole time?"

"Since before she even moved here, yeah," Wendy said, arms crossed. Stan's eyes flitted back and forth between Ana and Wendy, narrowing.

"You've known all along, haven't you!" he shouted, pointing.

With a shrug, Wendy said, "Yeah. I was pretty sure the first day she moved here."

"W-wait, so... so fellas," Butter stuttered, looking at the other guys. "We've been playing with a _girl_ this whole time?"

Wendy glared. "You've been playing with _me_ recently, too."

"That's different! I mean even when we played Stick of Truth!" Butters cried.

Ana nodded.

The boys all turned on each other, demanding to know if anyone else knew before now. For the most part, that didn't seem to be the case. Except then Craig spoke.

"I thought so a long time ago… Thought she might be gay at first, but she doesn't seem to be into guys."

"So she _is_ gay, though, just… not like we thought," Kyle said.

Bebe stepped up next to Wendy, smirking. Ana saw her glance at Red, who had a similar smile. "On that note… you got something you wanna tell everyone, Wendy?"

Staring in confusion at her two friends, it took a few seconds for Wendy's eyes to light up with realization. "H-how-?" She stopped, and Ana watched as the gears in her girlfriend's mind turned. "I wasn't going to talk about that _now_ …"

"When _were_ you going to tell us about it?" Annie said, eyebrow raised.

The boys looked utterly confused. "What's going on?" Stan said, tone agitated.

"I-I…"

Wendy looked to Ana, but all she had to offer was a shrug. The other girls knowing about their relationship was a shock to her, too, and she'd certainly had no intention of them talking about it now. But… would it be so bad? Wendy had mentioned that it would upset Stan, but Ana had a difficult time caring much about that. He'd get over it.

Breathing deeply, Wendy affixed Stan with a firm, determined stare. "They're talking about the fact that Ana and I are… we're dating."

This, far more than the revelation about Ana's gender, sent the boys into a tizzy. They collectively gasped, and then they all started talking at once, to each other, to Stan, it was chaos.

The girls crowded even closer around Ana and Wendy, teasing them for not admitting it sooner, but also expressing how happy they were for their friends. Ana's face felt like it was on fire, and Wendy's must have too, with how red it was. Both of them wore smiles, despite their embarrassment.

But then Wendy's smile faded. Ana tracked the line of her eyesight, which went directly to Stan. He was staring, mouth hanging open, eyes wide. He probably hadn't moved since the announcement.

The world fell away; it felt as though the only people in the room were the three of them, despite the excited chaos around them. Tentatively, Wendy smiled at Stan, giving a small wave. His face quickly shifted from shock to sadness and hurt. Then, even quicker, to anger. He glared, eyes flicking back and forth between Wendy and Ana, then he turned away.

Ana's heart broke as she saw Wendy's smile falter. Tears welled in her girlfriend's eyes, prompting Ana to swift action. Reaching out, she clasped Wendy's hand, squeezing it tight. Those wavering eyes fell upon Ana's, and suddenly, the tears seemed to disappear. She squeezed Ana's hand back, and they both smiled.

Though she wasn't sure what would come next - in both this particular situation and in life - in that moment Ana felt sure she could face anything. With Wendy by her side, the two of them could face the whole world, and win.

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Sorry it's kinda short! I struggled to create an ending to this... I realized once I started writing this chapter that all I had were vague ideas. But still, I'm happy with it, and I didn't want to elongate it just for the sake of it being longer.

I hope you all enjoyed this silly little fic!


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